Bonnie's Garden--Peppers--From Sweet to Scorching

Unless you really know peppers, it can be overwhelming when shopping for the plants. If you’re looking for heat, well, how hot IS a particular variety, exactly?

Chili Peppers are rated on what is called the Scoville Heat scale (Scoville Heat Units) This measures the amount of capsaicin in the pepper—capsaicin is what makes a pepper hot. The higher the number, the hotter the pepper. The seeds and white membrane inside the pepper contain the most heat. If you remove those, you can tone it down a little.

If you’re shopping for peppers, here is a guide to some of the peppers we most often carry. Scoville Heat Units (SHU) are listed after each variety.